Germany's WAZ sells majority stake in Bulgarian media group

Germany's WAZ Mediengruppe on Tuesday sold its newspaper and publishing business in Bulgaria, including the two wide-circulation Trud and 24 Chasa newspapers, Trud reported in its online edition.

WAZ struck a deal to sell its majority stake in Zeitungsgruppe Bulgarien (ZGB) -- which groups over a dozen Bulgarian publications -- to a newly established company, BG Privatinvest, in which Austrian Karl Habsburg holds a 33-percent stake, Trud said.

The daily did not disclose financial details around the deal and WAZ's exact stake in ZGB was unclear, but it owns 100 percent of 24 Chasa and nearly as much of Trud, according to media sources.

Apart from the two newspapers, whose average daily circulation ranges between 55,000 and 65,000 copies each, the deal included seven weekly newspapers, over 10 magazines, ZGB's downtown Sofia headquarters, its publishing house and the distribution business.

WAZ's decision to leave Bulgaria, which it entered in 1997, comes less than six months after the German group sold its newpspaper business in neighbouring Serbia.